First, Japanese artists learnt from European models – then vice versa. Thickly muscle-bound, richly tattooed, elaborately armoured, his mouth raging-open or defiant-closed, he lays into a human enemy, a monster, a giant sea-creature, amid threshing water or bolts of lightning. Glimpses of body parts, interleaved plate armour and robes, mottled and furry beast skin, bits of background – they overlap and collapse into a staccato pattern. The warrior Morozumi Masakiyo kills himself in battle requires a long caption – blown up by landmines, suffering terrible burns, he rips off his armour, stabs himself in the mouth and jumps into a blast. Or take The Soga Brothers achieve their revenge at the base at Mount Fufi – the driving rain falls through the whole picture in bands of straight lines, like vertical musical staves. Among his images of women, handiwork is depicted, weaving, mending nets, with an extreme sensitivity to the way threads – lines as threads – stretch and gather.

Tags: long arm quilting machines, violence, quilting patterns, keepsake quilting, artists, quilting